Video marketing through YouTube can be an incredibly powerful way to attract new business and customers for the small business owner operating on a shoestring marketing budget.

One of the reasons that video marketing is so effective is that prospective customers can actually “see you” which immediately helps establish a sense of trust for the consumer.

However, many business owners find YouTube to be too time-consuming and overwhelming. To keep your marketing time to a minimum, here are five tips that will streamline the time that you spend marketing on YouTube:

1) Shoot Five Videos in One Sitting

One of the most time-consuming parts of video marketing is setting up your camera, the lighting and other essentials. Instead of shooting five videos on five separate occasions, shoot five videos all at the same time. Each video only needs to be between 3 and 5 minutes.

Overall, if you spend 15- 25 in one sitting, you will save loads of set-up and take-down time.

2) Use An Outline

Never sit down and start talking. You need to have some sort of a plan before you begin shooting your video. Although you definitely don’t need a full-script, you do want to have a basic outline to follow. This will save you time, energy and plenty of frustration in the end.

You can type up a few bullet points and hang it from your video camera. This allows you to follow a general outline and sound more professional.

3) Upload Five Videos At Once

Instead of uploading a video on Monday and another on Wednesday, make it a point to load five videos in one sitting. The process of loading videos all at one time will save you roughly thirty minutes every week.

4) Do Not Be a Perfectionist

One of the top mistakes in video marketing is that individuals become overally perfectionistic when it comes to their videos. Then of course, they start over – again and again. I once had a client who shot 150 takes before he was happy with the results. Obviously, shooting videos over and over again will destroy your time-management efforts. Remember that your goal is not to shoot professional quality videos. Your goal is to relay important and relevant information to your audience.

In fact, many people appreciate the small quirks and imperfections that accompany video marketing. So, if you say a few “ummms” while you’re shooting your video, don’t despair. Your video will still perform just fine.

5) Don’t Get Lost in the YouTube “Black Hole”

When you log into your YouTube account, remember that you are there as a small business owner. You don’t want to fall into the trap of getting sidetracked with that cute little dog video or the latest Britany Spears debacle. You should log into Youtube with a sense of purpose.

In conclusion, don’t allow the YouTube marketing process to consume hours upon hours of your valuable time and energy. Because, if managed effectively, YouTube is a goldmine for marketing your business and can literally bring hundreds of free visitors to your website every single month.

If you’re looking for a way to launch a public relations campaign, look no further than the Online Media Kit.

Creating an online media kit allows both prospects and the media a chance to discover “behind-the-scenes” information about you and your small business.

In addition, media kits make it virtually painless for journalists, event hosts, radio show producers and bloggers to contact you in order to highlight you and your small business. Plus, it showcases the fact that you are media-friendly, and even more importantly, media-savvy.

Your media kit should be kept on its own separate page on your website. Many small business owners call the page Media, Press or Media Kit. In addition, choose file formats that work on multiple platforms, browsers and computers (i.e. PDF files).

There are generally six main components of a well-crafted media kit:

1. Company Overview. Provide important information about your company including when your company was founded, a concise description of your company, your mission statement, guiding principles and contact information.

2. Overview of Your Products/Services. Supply a short overview of your products and/or services. Include clickable links to sales pages for additional information.

3. Current Press Releases. Publish current press releases so that visitors can track the growth of your company over time.

4. Personal Fact-Sheet. Include your title, personal bio (including a long and short bio) and sample photos (optimized for both the internet and print).

5. List of Suggested Questions. Supply journalists, radio show hosts, writers and publishers a list of suggested questions that they can ask you related to your small business. It’s always a good idea to help make a prospective interview as painless as possible.

6. Links to Media Mentions and/or Appearances. As your small business begins to receive media coverage, publish these mentions and/or appearances to provide additional credibility for your small business.

Remember that all components of your media kit should be brief, interesting and compelling making it simple for the media to showcase your small business.

I’d like to thank Jessica for having me as a Guest Blogger on her site. Jessica and I met as a result of networking on Facebook.  We began corresponding and became friends. Jessica was a guest speaker on my online radio show, in fact you can listen in to the interview by visiting here.

Jessica and I are participating in a Blog World Tour and thus my readers will have the privilege of reading Jessica’s articles the same week that I will be sharing my thoughts here on your site. Thank you Jessica for this opportunity and for sharing your wisdom with my readers.

My name is D’vorah Lansky and I’ve been marketing online since 1994. My area of focus is in Relationship Marketing and working with professionals to help them build their businesses both online and offline.

Today I’d like to share with you a few thoughts about relationship marketing. From a business point of view, relationship marketing is doing business with people whom we’ve built a relationship with or with people who are highly recommended by people whom we have a relationship.

To put this in perspective  in your own life, think of a time that you have needed, say, the services of a plumber or painter. Did you flip through the phone book and make a random phone call, or did you call someone you know and ask for a referral to someone that they could highly recommend, someone they have a relationship with?

By building relationships, you are building friendships and your network.  By helping people in your network, by referring them to others, and, when appropriate, being available to brainstorm ideas with them, you will ensure that they’re going to want to know you, they’re going to want to refer you, and they’re going to potentially want to do business with you. Relationship marketing is the type of marketing that will not only bring more value to your business but will bring a sense of purpose to what you do.

Let’s take this concept online. Jessica is a perfect example of relationship marketing in action. One reason why she is so successful is not just because she is an exceptional teacher and marketer, but because it is very clear to her students and clients that she deeply cares about them and their success.

Interacting on the social networks provides many opportunities for building relationships and thus potential business partnerships or clients. When you participate in conversations online, are you the person who is always interjecting about what a great product or service you offer, or are you spending time answering questions and interacting, thus getting to know people?

Have you ever met people that you’ve come to admire and trust and, truth be told, it didn’t matter what they were selling, you wanted to do business with them?  Relationship marketing is about reaching out and touching your potential client. As a small business owner or entrepreneur, you truly are the heart of your business and when your potential client comes to know you on a personal level they will consider you an ally and want to buy from you.

If you enjoyed this article, I invite you to receive a free chapter of my book at www.ConnectCommunicateProfit.com

I’d love to hear your comments and questions and look forward to getting to know you.

All the best,

D’vorah Lansky
Relationship Marketing Wizard   |   Author   |   Speaker   |   Educator
www.BlogWorldTour.com/blog

When you write a press release it’s important that you submit a factual, professional and newsworthy story.  If you decide to “bend the rules,” press release distribution services have the right to refuse to accept and run your press release.
Here are ten common reasons why your press release won’t be accepted and distributed:

1) SHOUTING AT YOUR READERS. Avoid using ALL CAPS or exclamation points anywhere in your press release (including the headline)!!!  Capitalizing all of your letters or using exclamation points is unprofessional and literally shouts at your reader. (And, by the way, no one likes to be shouted at.)

2) Blatant Advertisements. Press releases are intended to deliver newsworthy stories to their audiences in an objective and non-biased manner. If you’re begging your readers to buy your products or services because they are “the best in the world,” you need to throw your release into the recycle bin and start again.

3) Hype and Exaggeration. Avoid language that makes extravagant claims or is filled with hype.  Certain words such as “free,” “unbelievable” and “best” are huge red flags that what you’re saying is just “too good to be true.”  Stick to the facts, Jack.

4) Lack of Content. Obviously, in order for a press release to be effective, it must be filled to the brim with important, relevant and newsworthy content. If, however, you insist on filling your release with fluff and “who the xxxx cares?” material, your mom may end up being the only reader.

5) Personal Opinions. Avoid writing press releases based around your personal opinions. Believe it or not, your readers aren’t interested in your opinions and beliefs. They want reliable, fact-based news.

6) Link Overload. Don’t overload your press release with links that point back to your website. Overusing links is a sure sign that you’re advertising yourself and your small business. (Look back at point #2: No one likes to be sold!) Make sure to limit your links to 1 per 100 words.

7) Reprints or Plagiarism. It’s illegal to reprint any copywrited materials from other websites or publications.  Hopefully, that’s an obvious one.

Fiction. Remember that your press release needs to be a factual piece of news. If you’re interested in exercising your creative juices, save it for your short-story class.

9) Duplicate Press Releases. You should only submit your press release once. The search engines and other targeted audiences do not want to see the same release over and over again. Yawn!

10) Grammatical Errors. One of the main reasons press releases are rejected is because they are filled with obvious grammatical errors. Spell-check, spell-check and then spell-check again.

Press releases are a wonderful way to gain visibility for your small business. However, make sure that you avoid these common mistakes to ensure that your press release is accepted for the world to see.

Every so often, email marketing gets a bad rap; perhaps it’s small business owners getting all whipped about social media marketing as the “next great marketing platform” and thinking that email marketing is dead.

But, one thing is certain. Email marketing works. However, like any marketing platform, it has rules and regulations that must be followed for optimal success.

One of the most basic premises underlying a successful email campaign is a strategy dubbed by marketing extraordinaire, Seth Godin, called “Permission Marketing.”  In a nutshell, you can ONLY email folks who have given you absolute permission to email them. Basically, if your prospects haven’t opted into a form on your website, you shouldn’t be emailing them.

So, in today’s strict email environment, how can you entice prospects to sign up for you list?

Here are a few ways to find new subscribers and build a powerful list of hot prospects:

1. Ask your current customers, family and friends to sign up for your newsletter. That’s right; you never know where your next customer will come from.

2. Insert a “Sign Up For Our Ezine” box on your homepage and a link to your ezine archives.

3. Promote your ezine on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and your blog.

4. Include a “teaser” to sign up for your ezine on your business card. (Never forget to use your business card as a 24-7 marketing tool.)

5. Hold a contest for your employees, customers and clients to see who can bring in the most sign-ups. (There’s nothing like a contest to bring on a healthy and hearty competition.)

6. Offer a free report, downloadable ebook, audio, webinar or other valuable offer in exchange for your prospect’s name and email address.

7. Allow your prospects, customers and clients to select their preferences in order to receive laser-targeted emails from you.

Obviously, an email list filled with prospects that have given you explicit permission to contact them is the only way to exist in today’s competitive small business environment. So, make a point to entice your prospects  to give you that coveted permission.

In 1895 an Italian economist by the name of Vilfredo Pareto made an interesting discovery. He found that 80% of Italy’s land was owned by just 20% of the population. Although his research was based on land acquisition, the theory behind his work remains intact today and is referred to as Pareto’s Principle or the 80/20 Rule.

Interestingly enough, the Pareto Principle can be applied to your marketing efforts as well. Basically, 80% of your marketing results come from 20% of your marketing efforts. If you can correctly identify the 20% of your marketing that works, you will save an incredible amount of time in your business. And as any good shoestring marketer knows, time is money.

However, how do you separate the marketing that is producing good results as opposed to the marketing that is zapping your precious time?

Here are a few clues that you are spending time on tasks that are NOT producing results for you:

• You spend hours “getting ready to market” as opposed to “marketing”

• Your marketing efforts are taking much longer than you anticipated

• You’re working on marketing platforms that are outside of your area of expertise.

• You are using dozens of marketing platforms, but still achieve poor results

• You are frustrated, burned-out and often feel that your marketing hasn’t accomplished anything.

Here are a few clues that you are spending time on marketing tasks that ARE producing results for you:

• You’re concentrating ONLY on the marketing platforms that help to boost your business and achieve your goals.

• You complete your marketing quickly and efficiently each day

• You feel that you focus on your areas of marketing expertise and outsource the tasks that you are not good or prefer not to do.

• You clearly understand what marketing platforms produce the best results for you and your business.

• You have mastered a few marketing platforms and ignored the rest.

If you find that you tend to fall in the first category, then there are three simple ways to increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

First of all, pick five marketing platforms and become an expert on these. Unfortunately, in today’s society, small business owners are overwhelmed by their marketing choices.
As a result, small business owners often dapple with dozens of different marketing platforms with poor results.

You will never succeed if you are a “Jack of All Trades, Master of None.” Instead, select just five platforms and become a dominating presence there. After you have mastered your five, then you can add additional platforms to your marketing portfolio.

The second way to increase the results of your marketing is to purchase a link-tracker that will track where your prospects are coming from.  A link tracker will give you a clear idea which marketing efforts work and which don’t. One of my favorite link trackers is Linkcounter at http://www.linkcounter.com

Linkcounter allows you to set up an unlimited number of links which will keep track of who clicks on your URLs. This is information that every marketer must have.

Finally, focus on your marketing strengths. If you love to write, then market your business through blogs, ezines and articles. If you enjoy speaking, then host a radio show, teleseminar and podcast. And if you like online networking, then tap into the power of online business communities like LinkedIn, Ryze and eCademy.

If you use your own personal strengths to drive your marketing efforts, the results will be so much more effective.

Eventually, you want to increase time on the 20% of your platforms that are producing results for you and eliminate the 80% of your platforms that are not producing results.
If you follow this simple 3-step formula, your business and your time will skyrocket! You will find that you are spending less time on your business, yet making more profits.

As a small business owner, at one time or another, you will need to create a compelling ad. It doesn’t matter if your ad is a sales brochure, email announcement or a newspaper ad, ultimately, your ad-copy must grab your prospect’s attention, produce a desired emotional response that urges them to take action.

Here Are 7 Key Points To Keep In Mind, When Writing Ad-Copy:

1. Choose Your Words Carefully

There are over 175,000 words in the English language and, if used wisely, have the power to sway people’s thinking, change their perspective and even motivate them to take action.

Selecting your words thoughtfully and with precision will create an enormous difference in the quality and performance of your ads.

- Words that create a feeling of safety: peace, relaxed, serene, secure, warm

- Words that create a sense of control: confidence, mastery, balance, self-assured, composure

- Words that create excitement: edgy, exhilarating, explosive, juicy, sensational

2. Focus On Benefits

Many small business owners make the mistake of focusing on the features of their product or service. Unfortunately, your prospect isn’t interested in mere features; they are only interested in how your product or service will improve their life.

Therefore, eliminate focusing on the mundane characteristics of your product and service and instead concentrate on how it will benefit your prospect’s life. Will it make them thinner? Happier? Richer?

If you are able to effectively portray how your product will change lives, your battle is half-done.

3. Establish Trust

One of the jobs of your ad-copy is to establish trust between you and your buyers. People will never do business with companies that they don’t feel confident about. Therefore, you need to put their anxieties to rest and convince them that their fears are unsubstantiated.

There are various ways to establish credibility:

- Use statements that are truthful and original;

- Offer free product samples or free services;

- Include your name and contact information in your ad-copy;

- Use testimonials from satisfied clients/customers;

- Avoid generalizations and include specifics.

4. Create One Clear Objective

Every single piece of ad-copy that you produce (whether it is a Google Adword campaign or a piece of direct mail) should be deliberately simple.

You should have only one, crystal clear objective in your ad. Either you want your prospect to visit a website, call a 1-800 number or take out their wallet and make a purchase. If  your ad contains multiple objectives, your prospect will only become confused and overwhelmed.

As the saying goes, “Keep It Simple Stupid!” This applies to your ad-copy as well.

5. Differentiate Your Company

One of the main ingredients in successful ad-copy is to convince your prospects that you are different and unique from your competition. Your ad should always convey at least one reason why you are different.

Do you offer superior customer service? Are you the fastest? Do you produce the highest quality materials?

Discover what main attributes motivate your particular target market and make this attribute the focal point when differentiating yourself.

6. Pack Your Headlines With Power

There are dozens of research studies that suggest that your headline is the most important part of your entire ad.  In fact, you only have three seconds to capture your prospect’s interest, so your headline needs to be packed with as much power as possible.

You should always use “power words” in your headline such as:

Amazing
Announcing
Advice To
At Last
Bargains
Breakthrough
Discover
Do You
Enormous
Facts
Finally
Free
Great News
Guaranteed
Here
How Much
Inside Secrets Of…
Innovative
Love
Only
Proven
Sale
This
Which
Yes

7. Create An Emotional Response

Ultimately, your ad should produce a desired emotion in your prospect. It’s simply not enough that your prospect relates to your company in a logical manner. There needs to be an emotional connection as well.

Use words that bring about the emotions that you want your customer or client to feel: love, fear, desire, power, more control, etc.

If your prospect relates to you on both an emotional and logical level, you are engaging them in a fuller manner and they are more likely to connect with you and your company.

Although writing solid ad-copy isn’t child’s play, it can be learned through practice, patience and perseverance.

The difference between producing a mediocre ad and producing an irresistible ad that motivates your prospect to take action could literally mean thousands of dollars in extra sales, customers and clients.

Whether you are selling a product or service, there are four powerful marketing principles that are essential to your success. Although these marketing principles are fairly simple, once applied they can be incredibly powerful tools for building your small business.

Most beginning marketers make the mistake of overcomplicating the process of marketing. Consequentially, their results are poor at best. In order to attain a positive return on your marketing investment (whether that investment is time or money), the four basic principles described below are the basic building blocks of marketing success:

1. Understand Your Target Market. It’s impossible to market your product or service if you don’t know who you are selling to and what motivates them to buy. Are your potential clients and customers male or female? What is their typical education level? Are they first time buyers or frequent buyers? What kind of cars do they drive? Are they married or single?  The more information that you are able to gather about your audience, the more targeted and applicable your marketing campaign will be.

2. Nurture Your Relationships. Once you begin identifying potential clients and customers, it’s mandatory to begin developing a relationship with them. Research suggests that your target market needs to be exposed to your company and offer between seven and twelve times before they take action. This is best accomplished by educating them continually about your product and services. You can accomplish this by sending your prospects’ educational articles, informational podcasts, free reports, downloadable ebooks and inviting them to webinars or live seminars. If you are able to effectively educate your prospects as to why they need your product or service, they are much more likely to make a purchase.

3. Deliver An Irresistible Offer. In direct marketing, research suggests that your results are 40% dependent on your list, 40% dependent on your offer and 20% dependent upon the creativity involved. It’s no different for email marketing, ezine marketing, google adwords, etc. It’s important to continually test various offers to your prospects.  Eventually, you will be able to pinpoint an offer that outperforms all the rest and that your prospects find utterly irresistible. If your offer provides a satisfactory solution to your target market, at the right time and the right price, your sales could increase by up to 400%.

4. Communicate a Powerful Message. Once you understand your audience and have identified problems that they are facing within your industry, you will be able to craft a message that succinctly solves their problem. Your marketing message should also differentiate your product or service from your competition. It’s also important that you focus on the benefits of your product or service as opposed to the features. If your marketing message is compelling enough, it will undoubtedly move your prospects to take action.

TZNSBZT67ZNT

The next time you are putting together a marketing campaign, apply these four marketing principles. Understanding your target market, nurturing your relationships, delivering an irresistible offer and communicating to them effectively are the essential foundations for any marketing campaign to attain favorable results.

I have a very strange question to ask you. Do you believe in dating someone before you get married? My guess is that you’re rolling your eyes and saying, “Of course, you should date before you get married! Are you crazy?”

The reason I’m asking this crazy question is because many small business owners expect their prospects to commit to a serious relationship with them before they even know them. Think about it for a minute.

Most small business owners put up their company website and wait for the prospects to start pouring in the door. If prospects land on the website, that same small business owner expects the customer to simply shell over their hard-earned money instantly.

The problem is that it just doesn’t work like that. Customers want to get to know you before they commit. They need to trust you, like you and understand you. It’s really no different than marriage.

Research suggests that customers need to connect with you an average of seven to twelve times before they are ready to take out their wallet and spend money to do business with you. In all reality, your customer is going to do business with you when they are ready to do business with you.

That means that we need strategies to connect with our prospects in a multiple of different ways. We want to be a constant reminder to our customers that when they are ready to buy, we are there to support them. The only way this can be accomplished is by continuing to build a meaningful relationship with our prospects.

The good news is that this doesn’t need to an overwhelmeing task. In fact, much of the connections with your prospects can be accomplished through the power of automation.

Here’s an example of how I “woo” my prospects and develop a serious relationship with them.

First of all, through my various marketing efforts, they arrive at my landing page. My landing page is designed with one purpose in mind. Mainly, I want my prospect to feel safe, secure and begin the process of “getting to know me.” I’m not expecting a sale on the first encounter.

In addition, I offer my prospects free and valuable information that allows them to get to know me. If my prospect feels comfortable with my landing  page, they supply me with their name and email. This is where the relationship begins and the real automation kicks in.

Once I have a prospect’s information, I connect with them in a number of ways:

•    Email autoresponder messages that are sent out automatically;

•    Videos for my prospect to watch;

•    Podcasts and audio reports to listen to;

•    Special reports that I have written that highlight my industry;

•    A chance to subscribe to my blog and learn more about shoestring marketing;

•    Invitations to special webinars or teleseminars that I host.

Naturally, there are dozens of other ways that you can connect with your prospects and begin to build powerful relationships. Let your imagination be your guide.

Most importantly, you must give your prospects many different ways to connect with you and to begin building that incredibly valuable relationship. Because once they feel a strong connection with you, they usually end up making that commitment.

One of the most common problems for small business owners is managing their time when using free marketing strategies. Many individuals feel that free marketing, specifically social media marketing (Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Twitter, etc), is too time-consuming and overwhelming.

Individuals aren’t sure what to focus on, where to spend their time and how to balance all of their varying marketing platforms.  As a result, many individuals end up spending hours and hours every day marketing their business.

Believe me, it doesn’t need to be this way! Of course, free marketing is going to take some time and energy every day but, it should only take you between one and two hours if you work smart and strategically.

Here are 7 time management strategies to help you work smarter, as opposed to harder.

1) Narrow Your Focus

There are hundreds of free marketing platforms to choose from. You can’t possibly market on all of them. My rule of thumb is to pick five free platforms and focus your marketing efforts there.

You will never succeed if you try to conquer too much. Remember, you do not want to be a “Jack of all Trades, Master of None!” You want to master a few marketing strategies well.

2) Spend Time Each Day on “Creation” and “Maintenance”

Every day you should “create” new information. This can be accomplished by writing an article, shooting a video, creating a group (FaceBook, LinkedIn), etc. The new information that you create doesn’t have to be long and time-consuming. For instance, you can shoot and 3-minute video and upload it into YouTube all under fifteen minutes time.
In addition to creating information, you should spend time each day maintaining your sites. This can be accomplished by making MySpace friend requests, writing on Facebook walls, adding LinkedIn connections, posting to Twitter, etc.

If you divide your time between creating information and maintenance, you will be working smarter.

3) Set an allotted amount of time for marketing each day.

You want to approach your marketing with a plan. And that includes a plan for how much time you will devote each day to marketing your business.

If you simply “start marketing” without any sense of how much time you will devote, you will be extremely non-productive.

I generally recommend spending 1-2 hours every day actively marketing your business.

However, you also do not want to spend more time than necessary on marketing. If you log into Facebook and begin “to market” without a plan of action, you might still be there six hours later.  So, decide how much time you will spend on marketing and stick to it.

4) Use a Timer

Using a timer might sound silly, but it is certainly a trick that I have always relied on. When I am writing an article, I set my timer for 30 minutes. I give myself exactly 30 minutes to write my article.  If I don’t finish, then I will have to finish tomorrow.

You’d be surprised how much more efficient you are when there is a timer clicking away in the background.

5) Connect Your Accounts

Make sure that you connect all of your social media and information accounts that you can connect.

As an example, you can add your Twitter account to your EzineArticles account. Then, whenever you publish an article, your Twitter account will be automatically updated with your newest article.

Again, you can add Twitter to your FaceBook account, so that your “Twitters” appear on your FaceBook profile. Take some time to investigate all the ways that you can integrate and connect your accounts together. This will save you valuable time in the long-run.

6) Recycle Your Efforts

Whenever I write an article, I reuse it in many different ways. Here is an example:

Imagine that I write an article titled, “7 Ways To Market On FaceBook.” I, of course, publish that article in multiple article directories.

However, it doesn’t stop there. Then, I post that same article to my blog. After that I use the basic concept from my article for a YouTube video. After that, I Twitter about that concept as well.

The point is that when I have a new concept, I reuse that concept as many times as possible.

7) Track What Works and Focus Your Efforts There

You will soon find that when it comes to free marketing and social networking that it’s often difficult to accurately track your marketing statistics. For instance, when using PPC (pay-per-click) it is simple to add a code to your website and find out exactly how many people are visiting your website, opting-in to your form and making purchases.

This isn’t as simple when it comes to social marketing.

However, there are activities that you will notice add to your business success and activities that don’t do a thing for your business.

As an example, I found that managing all the “application requests” from FaceBook was becoming quite a chore. So, I decided that I just couldn’t take the time to respond to every Christmas ornament, Starfish, etc. that I received. I had to begin to “ignore” those application requests.

You will need to make the same decisions.

Remember, free marketing work.  In fact, I truly believe that free marketing often works better than paid marketing.

However, if you are going to optimize your free marketing plan make sure to implement these seven tips to help you effectively manage your time and energy.